In a known clean robot of this kind, an elevating body with its tip penetrating a slit in the front surface of a hollow frame extending vertically from a base and further extending to the exterior of the frame is accommodated in the frame so as to travel upward and downward, a ventilating path is partitioned off in the rear of the frame using a partition panel, and an inlet port is provided at the top of the partition panel to guide air from inside the frame to the ventilating path, while an exhaust port is provided to guide air from inside the ventilating path to a ventilator in the internal lower part of the frame, so that when the elevating body is elevating and its pumping action causes the air in the internal upper part of the frame to be pressed, the air is drawn from the inlet port in the partition panel to the ventilator via the ventilating path and exhaust port to prevent the pressed air in the frame from being ejected to the exterior of the frame, i.e., to the front of the robot through the slot in the front surface of the frame, thereby preventing dust from being diffused to a clean room using the small ventilator, as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2507583.
In a known warehouse robot, which is not a clean robot, two vertical frames (masts) are provided on a swivelling turntable and an elevating body having a wafer loading apparatus is supported between both frames so as to travel upward and downward so that the elevating body elevates and lowers to lift and lower the loading apparatus in order to transfer and load wafers, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 8-127405.
In the former conventional example (Japanese Patent No. 2507583), the elevating body is built into the hollow frame, so it is inevitably very cumbersome to assemble and maintain the elevating body. If, however, the elevating body is located outside the frame, the tip of the elevating body protrudes from the base, thereby requiring a space to prevent the tip from colliding against an object around the robot when, for example, the base is swiveled around the swiveling center.
In addition, since the ventilator is provided in the internal lower part of the frame in which the elevating body is accomodated, the lowering end position of the elevating body cannot be set near the base due to the interference from the ventilator, thereby preventing the elevating body from having a wide elevation stroke.
This invention is provided in view of these points, and its object is to improve the structure of the clean robot in order to allow the elevating body to be located outside the frames without protruding from the swivel base, thereby allowing the elevating body to be assembled and maintained easily and to have a wide elevating stroke.